


Everything Stays

by FireflysWriting



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Not Season/Series 04 Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Season/Series 03, post 3x24
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 11:57:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18777802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflysWriting/pseuds/FireflysWriting
Summary: A very late post-season 3 fic.





	Everything Stays

**Author's Note:**

> I know season 4 is already here, but I started writing this about 3 months ago and suddenly I had a deadline and no time to finish this before that deadline arrived. Soo, have a belated post-s3 fic.
> 
> Not beta'd, we die like true fanfic authors.

“It's all true,” Chloe muttered. There was really no denying it any longer. The charred face of what ought to be her partner looked back at her, but the burnt flesh was not the most jarring thing about his look. No, with it she had at least a minimal chance of pretending it was somewhat human. (Oh who was she kidding. She didn't.) No, what was impossible to ignore were his eyes, with their black sclera and burning irises.

If she weren't going into shock right now, she'd actually find them rather fascinating, the logical part of her brain provided. _And weren't you done with pretending anyway?_

Sadly, said part had no shred of control left over her body.

“Detective, what are you talking about?”

Yep, that was definitely Lucifer. That assessment however did not help her current state of mind, since that revelation, this indisputable truth, was what put her in it in the first place, and she could feel herself starting to black out.

 _Oh no you don't_ , she thought to herself and she really was staring to appreciate this part of her brain that she had mostly taken for granted so far.

She allowed herself to sit down, squeezing her eyes shut, not quite trusting that she wouldn't lose consciousness if she actually lay down, and took some steadying breaths. She tried to focus on something, anything in the room that would allow her to distract herself from her oncoming panic attack.

Which was easier said than done. Her eyes drifted from Pierce's dead body, who was actually Cain, apparently, (which was a can of worms she was not going to open right now) over to the bloodied and _slightly glowing_ feathers and the dozens of bullets lodged in the stone pillars and statues around her to the huge window _that was destroyed from the outside in_. That was just her luck. Probably stolen artefacts her dead fiancé collected it was. Great.

“Detective?” Lucifer sounded panicked. Apparently he had noticed the source of her distress. That's when the absurdity of the situation hit her. Him, the former(?) Lord of Hell, scared of her reaction.

 _This is still just Lucifer_ , her mind supplied helpfully. Childish, reckless, and now terrified of her reaction Lucifer. He was still her partner and she _knew_ him. He, who was always seeking her approval, even though he more often than not completely ignored her orders, who regularly put his life on the line to protect her. Of course he would be scared of her reaction. Which also meant that him running away just about now was a very real possibility, never mind that she was still in the middle of her current crisis of faith.

“Sorry,” she managed to get out. “I just need a minute. To process.” The art collection riddled with bullets didn't help distracting her anymore either, so she shut her eyes again, pressing the palms of her hands against them.

“Okay,” he whispered, barely audible, his relief however almost palpable. “Okay.”

He wasn't running, not yet, at least. Good. That was one crisis more or less averted.

The sound of the sirens of the backup Dan and Ella must have called was starting to register in her mind, but she couldn't get herself to care about that just yet, the rest of her mind screaming at her about all the revelations that still threatened to overwhelm her. The forefront of her stream of consciousness though apparently wanted to open the Cain box now finally caught up with the knowledge that _Pierce is Cain. Cain was the Sinnerman. The world's first murderer is the Sinnerman and you were engaged to him and almost killed him_. Well, Lucifer took care of the last part in the end, _shit, Lucifer killed someone_.

 

~~~

 

Lucifer surveyed her reaction carefully. She was at least more animated than Linda had been, and still she hadn't run away screaming. Yet. There was surprisingly little screaming taking place as a whole. Processing, she had said. That was good, right?

Of course his Devil face had to come back at the worst possible moment. And this time he couldn't even blame his father for it, Amenadiel's theory made too much sense for that. He hated to admit it, but this situation was entirely his doing.

But in the end, this is exactly what he deserved after all.

He shifted his stance and hissed. Those bullet wounds, not to mention the break in his right wing radius really hurt and it seemed like he'd be stuck with them for quite a while longer. At least with his wings safely hidden away he wouldn't end up bleeding to death. That would have been a very unfortunate scenario.

The police sirens were getting closer. He cursed under his breath and studied the damage done to the loft, taking note of both his feathers and blood that was strewn across the scene. There was no way he'd be able to clean all of it up by himself before any more people showed up.

There was only one thing to do, no matter how much he hated asking Amenadiel for help again.

The first-born arrived with a telltale gust of wind, his time-slowing abilities in full effect again.

“Alright, what-” Amenadiel started, only to stop directly afterwards, too surprised by the extent of damage done to the room. “By Father, what happened here?”

“So sorry to drag you away from Charlotte so soon brother, but police backup is almost here and as you can see, we're kind of in a situation here. I would be very grateful if you could help me clean this mess up.”

“Lucifer, I am not your personal cleaning service,” Amenadiel sighed.

“Yes, well, and I wasn't even sure you'd actually show up at all.”

The angel was taken aback, “Why wouldn't I?”

“For starters, you got your wings back and could go home. You got everything you wanted. So why would you ever set foot on earth again?”

“Did you think I was just going to abandon you?”

Lucifer's silence was confirmation enough.

“Lucifer, we might not see eye to eye on most things,” The fallen angel snorted at that. “But you're still my brother. I won't just abandon you. Not again,” he almost whispered the last part. “Besides, someone has to annoy you from time to time or you'd get way too comfortable here and where would we be then?”

“Somewhere with a lot less life-threatening situations?” Lucifer smirked.

“Fair enough,” Amenadiel answered.

He looked at the loft more closely. If you knew about the existence of the celestial, or, in this case were one, it didn't take a genius to figure out what happened.

“They shot at you.”

“Yes.”

“Cain is dead?”

“I made sure of that.”

“Permanently?”

“Apparently so. He should be, at least.”

“You killed him.” It was not a question.

Lucifer nodded. “He bloody well deserved it.”

Amenadiel's gaze drifted over to Chloe. “Is she okay?”

“That depends on your definition of okay I suppose. Physically, she is, mostly. Mentally,” Lucifer gestured to his still burned face, “She saw.”

His brother cringed sympathetically. “Well, she didn't run away.”

“Yet. She said she's processing,” he countered. “Could you maybe unfreeze her? She's going to need all the time she can get.”

Amenadiel sighed. “The things I do for you, Luci.”

 

~~~

 

 _Focus, Decker, you still have a crime scene to take care of_. 

That, however, was easier said than done. She could feel herself slowly calming down, and not wanting to waste any more time than necessary, allowed outside signals to reach her senses again.

Lucifer was talking to someone. Lucifer, who was the Devil. Somehow that thought wasn't as intimidating anymore. 

The sirens had stopped, she noted. In fact, Lucifer and… Amenadiel? Talking was about the only thing she could actually hear. They were somewhere to her right, out of her direct line of sight, but before she had a chance to turn around, Amenadiel was kneeling in front of her. Amenadiel, who was Lucifer's brother, which would make him an angel.

“Chloe, how are you doing?” He looked concerned.

“H-hey. About as good as I can, I guess,” she swallowed. “Definitely better than a few minutes ago, though my head feels like it's about to explode,” she shifted a bit and immediately winced. “Also I just remembered I got shot, so that obviously hurts too. Ugh, this is going to suck.”

“Well, I can't give much of an opinion on your physical wellbeing, but if it's any consolation for your mental state, you're taking the whole thing remarkably well. Judging from our sample size of three, that is.”

“Doesn't feel like it.” She shook her head and immediately regretted it. “And I could really use some water.”

Before Amenadiel could so much as blink, Lucifer already announced, “I'll get it.” Chloe listened to his hastily retreating steps, him probably in search of a kitchen.

“He really was just waiting for a chance to run out of here, wasn't he?” she smiled crookedly at the angel.

He gave her a sad smirk. “Pretty much, yes.”

She sighed.

“Chloe, I realize that it is not really my place to tell you this, but he has dreaded telling you the truth for over a year now. You mean a lot to him and he cannot bear watching you reject him for what he is.” He looked at her very seriously now. “He is my brother and I care about him, even though I'm not always good at showing it. He has hurt enough by now. And that's why I need to ask you, please try not to break him any more than he already is.”

“I- know, I know. That's why I stopped him from running away earlier.” Amenadiel looked at her impressed and clearly surprised at that. “I'm trying, I really am.”

“He's really not giving you enough credit, you know? And maybe neither am I.”

They sat in silence for a few moments before Chloe picked up on an earlier detail, “You said three. Who else knows?”

“Linda, for one. And… Charlotte.”

Charlotte. Who might or might not be Lucifer's mother. Now there was another rabbit hole she wouldn't go down just yet.

She looked around the room, noticing that a bunch of the feathers had already been put into a bag, which in turn made her realize three fundamental truths at the exact same time: Number one, there was quite a bit of divine proof lying around the crime scene. Number two, she'd have to lie in her statement to get out of this with any chance of not ending up in a mental hospital. Number three, “Why is backup not here yet?”

This time, Amenadiel looked at her genuinely bemused. “My power is time manipulation, I can slow time. I'm sure Luci has mentioned that at least once before.” He glanced around the room. “And we're going to need all the time we can get to clean this mess up.”

Before she had the chance to answer, Lucifer came back into the room, “Truer words have never come out of your mouth before, brother. Heads up!”

That was all the warning Amenadiel got before water bottle was thrown in his direction. The angel caught it and gave it to Chloe, Lucifer still hiding at the other end of the room. The bottle was still cool and she was grateful for it, pressing it against her forehead for a moment before actually taking a sip.

“Sorry I'm so useless right now. This is just a lot to take in.”

Apparently she had hit a nerve with that.

“ _Really_ , Detective,” Lucifer hissed sarcastically, “It's not like I told you every time it came up. After everything this really shouldn't be that much of a surprise anymore.”

And immediately took it back, “I apologize, that was really not appropriate.”

 _After everything that happened today he still talks like that_.

Her humour was short-lived however, Amenadiel's words and her knowledge of her partner telling her, this was her time to admit her shortcomings.

“No, you're right, it really shouldn't. I'm sorry for reacting so strongly and,” she swallowed, “For never believing you. The evidence was right there the whole time and I just chose to ignore it. That's all on me.”

She got up, trying her best to hide her wincing from the pain the bullet inflicted on her, intent on finally looking at him.

But of course he noticed, his worry clear in his voice, “You really should rest Detective, Amenadiel and I will take care of the cleanup.”

She shook her head, noting that it didn't send the room spinning this time and turned to face her partner. “No, I…” she started and promptly fell silent again.

Before, the shock prevented her from actually taking in Lucifer's look in this form on a more rational level. And maybe she had thought he'd look like his usual self again by now. Well, it made sense now why he stayed out of her field of vision so far.

He obviously noticed why she'd stopped talking and cringed apologetically. “I apologize again, but it seems I am stuck like this for now. If you'd like to leave you are free to do so.”

Her falling silent really hadn't helped the situation and she could slap herself for it. This was really not the time to freak out, it hadn't been since this whole mess started. Lucifer needed all the reassurance he could get right now and she was intent on giving it to him.

“No, Lucifer, this is still an active crime scene, I am not leaving.”

His posture was the same as always, and after three years of working together fairly easy to read for her. He had his hands in his pants pockets, shoulders hunched and it was clear that he was deeply insecure.

He nodded at that. “Right, well, I will be leaving then instead.”

She noticed the bullet holes in his shirt, crimson flesh shining through but no blood. There was a cut on his upper left arm, this wound clearly bleeding. Huh, how did that work? _And that was another suit destroyed_ , she grinned inwardly.

Outwardly, she smiled sympathetically instead. “Lucifer, no one is leaving until this is dealt with, so just accept that you're stuck with me. No running away this time.”

His eyes were still glowing brightly and yes, they were quite beautiful to look at. And as inhuman as they were, they were still just as expressive as before, and all Chloe could see in them was pain. Pain that was now getting mixed with clear surprise at her statement.

He opened his mouth and closed it again, seemingly lost on words.

His face was the only place she could get a good look at the state of his skin, or rather what was left of it. Burn victims were always horrible to look at and she could only assume that the scars covered his whole body. It made her heart constrict. All in all it just looked painful.

“We really should give her more credit,” Amenadiel repeated his earlier assessment.

Lucifer's attention shifted to his brother. “It appears so, yes.” A timid smile appeared on his face.

_Success!_

“Does it hurt?” she blurted out.

“Does what hurt, exactly?” he looked at her bewildered.

“Your… skin condition.”

“Huh? No, not- not anymore. It did once- way back when it happened, but not anymore.” He hesitated, “Most of the time anyway. And then it's a faint ache at most.”

“Good. That's… good, right?”

He smiled again at that. “Yes, it's good.”

“So, um… what happened? For this,” she gestured at his face, “To be the outcome?”

“Starting with the big questions now, are we?” he teased her. “Well, when you fall from a great height and through multiple planes of existence at that, it tends to leave some marks. As to why I still look like this, or, well, look like this again, that is currently up for debate.”

“Wh-“

“Not to interrupt,” Amenadiel interrupted, “But we still have to take care of this mess here.”

“Oh, sure, yes. Okay,” she took another look at the room, “What needs to be done? You two are presumably the experts at this?”

“Usually not to this extent, but yes, more or less,” Amenadiel began. “We need to get all the feathers, they're the most important part. Getting Lucifer's blood would not be bad, but I don't think we can quite manage that and it's really not as necessary. Same goes for the knife, but removing that would probably be too suspicious, so we can leave it.”

“You're right, a missing murder weapon would be too suspicious.”

“Maze can see for herself how she gets it back,” Lucifer growled.

Maze's knife. Maze, who was a demon. Huh. “Wait, how did he get one of her knives?”

“That's what I'd like to know. Oh, at least wherever she is, she will be thoroughly annoyed by the time stop,” he grinned darkly.

Amenadiel flinched. Oooh-kay, there was definitely more going on there.

“There are also some feathers on the helipad Lucifer left me on earlier,” she informed the angel.

He sighed. “Of course they are. I'll take care of them.” With that, he unfurled his wings and was gone from the room.

Chloe gasped at the display, her eyes wide. _Of course Amenadiel would have wings, he is an angel after all_. His swift departure had surprised her though, she could give herself that.

Lucifer looked at her rather amused at that. “I can assure you mine are much more impressive when they're at full health. So no need for you to be fascinated with his.”

She remembered the fake wings at the auction and those had already been beautiful. But that could wait.

So instead she rolled her eyes and shook her head, focusing back on the task at hand. “Sure. Alright, we need a cover story, something that won't end up getting me fired. The window will be the hardest part to explain, followed with wherever went what they shot… at…” She bent down, intent on picking up one of the broken and bloodied feathers _that came from Lucifer's wings. He had protected her with his-_

She hissed in pain. Bending down was apparently not a good idea, or at least she should use her other arm, but her discomfort was secondary to the realization that _those bullets were still very much embedded in her partner's wings_.

“Detective, are you alright?”

“It's just a- am _I_ alright? _You_ are the one walking around with bullets stuck in his wings. Are _you_ alright?”

“I'm-” He winced. “I will be fine, don't worry about me”

“So you're definitely not okay now.”

“Oh, suddenly you _do_ want to talk about my wings.” His attempt to deflect was not impressing her. “I assure you, it's manageable enough. Let's focus on the cleanup for now.”

She looked at him pointedly. There was something that told her he still didn't believe there to be an 'After that... '. Time for part c of Let Lucifer know he was still her friend.

“Alright. But after that we're taking care of you.”

His fiery eyes widened comically the moment he understood what she was saying. “ _What?_ ”

“You heard me, I want to help.”

“But- “

“Nope, no butts allowed. I'm not abandoning you,” she continued a bit softer, “You saved my life, Lucifer. The least I can do is take care of you.”

That prompted him to fall silent.

She wanted to laugh at his bewilderment, but he looked truly lost the way he scanned her for any kind of deception, somehow looking even more lost when he didn't find any. There was something poetic about him having more trouble accepting her reaction than her accepting that he was actually the Devil. But all it showed her was how broken he actually was.

She decided to give him a moment and quietly went on to pick up more of the feathers.

In a way she was surprised about how fast this had become her new normal. Then again, like she told him, the evidence had always been there, she had just refused to accept it. Or, well, maybe another breakdown was scheduled for after all of this was dealt with.

Maybe accepting the Devil as her friend and a demon as her roommate really shouldn't be that easy, but it's not like she didn't know both of them. And they were many things, but dangerous was not one of them. Well, she relented, at least not if you were on the right side of the law. The Devil only punished the guilty after all.

She looked towards Pierce, something she'd pointedly avoided until now and sighed. She would need a lot of therapy after this was all over. Good thing she already knew the Devil's therapist. She grinned. Witnessing one of those sessions would probably really be something.

Shoving the whole Pierce debacle back into its box, she decided to focus on coming up with a plausible cover story. The easiest way out would be to let forensics figure out for themselves what had happened here, but both her and Lucifer would have to give a statement at some point-

“How can you just _accept_ me like that?” He interrupted her train of thought.

“Lucifer, I've known you for three years now,” she smiled at him. “Nothing you can tell me will change the fact that _I know you_.”

That threw him into silence again.

“Now, we still need a cover story, because I am not going to tell anyone that I was saved by angel wings.”

For all the tact she tried to display, she really had managed to hit the same nerve twice.

“Please, Detective, this is your area of expertise. After all, you did this for all the time you knew me,” he scoffed. “Well, go on, what exactly happened here that has nothing to do with the celestial?”

She flinched. Yeah, that hurt, but it's not like she didn't deserve it.

“Lucifer- “

“You think you know me? You have no idea what I did in the time we've known each other alone, much less about what I did in the aeons before that. So don't you dare pretend that you do.”

Oh. So that was the current issue.

“You're right, I don't know everything about you and I will not pretend that I do. But there is something I do know. I know what kind of person you are, and you are not the kind of person I am running away from. You are my friend and nothing you tell me will change that,” she sighed. “And again, I know that I've been ignoring the truth for way too long now and I really am sorry about that. Just, let me try to make this right, please?”

He deflated at that. “Apologies again, I seem to make everything worse today.” He looked anywhere but at her. “I am simply not used to dealing with… this.”

“I know. And it's not like anything you said wasn't the truth.”

And there was another angle she had to take into account. Lucifer doesn't lie.

“I still shouldn't have said it.”

“You were right though. I should be able to figure this out, at least.”

But he didn't always tell the whole truth either.

“Okay, we got in here, Pierce threatened us, I shot at him, one of his guys shot at me and that knocked me out. He told his men to open fire and then- “ she stocked. “Uh, something destroyed the window, distracting them long enough that you could carry me outside. Um. We heard shouting and gunfire and when everything was silent and we went back down again to look at what was going on we found it like this.”

She looked at Lucifer. “Can you work with that?”

He nodded. “Yes, I believe that should work.”

“Good. That will leave everything vague enough for forensics to work out what supposedly happened. Their best guess will be that they shot at whatever came through the window and then turned on each other.” She frowned. “We could really use Ella's help on the inside with this. Or at least until this whole clusterfuck gets taken over by IA.”

Lucifer exhaled heavily, clearly uncomfortable with the idea. “Is that really necessary?”

Chloe gestures at the room, “We could have easily missed something. And with her leading forensics, we could at least try and steer this in the 'right' direction.” She paused. “Do you have a better idea?”

“I simply do not want to break her, Detective. Her faith is very important to her and as she once told me not knowing is half of what faith entails. Her having proof would destroy that.”

“It's really sweet that you care about her so much, but Ella is strong. And if I know her, the only thing she is gonna freak out about is how you could have kept this from her for so long.”

That prompted a smile from him. “If you say so. I trust your judgement with this.”

That's when Amenadiel came back. “Next time take Chloe somewhere with less chance of your feathers being blown all over LA,” he huffed, which caused both of them to laugh, effectively dispersing any lingering awkwardness in the room.

“I'll try to keep it in mind,” Lucifer grinned.

~~~

They were almost done removing the feathers when Lucifer spoke up again. “What about the statements of the other scumbags here?” he asked, kicking the one he was standing next to for good measure.

“I don't think we have to worry too much about them. If they even say anything at all, they will do their best to avoid mentioning shooting at angel wings, and if they do, well, they won't be taken seriously anymore anyway.”

After a few more minutes, the last of the feathers had been stuffed into the bag.

“I think we're about done here,” Amenadiel spoke up.

“What about the blood? You said it isn't as important, but it would still be weird, right?”

Lucifer answered that for her. “I wouldn't worry about that. If they were to test it for DNA, it would simply come back as inconclusive, which would not be the weirdest thing they'll find here. And I never directly touched the knife, so no worries there.”

There was a pause.

“Detective, you do realize I cannot stay here like this?” he gestured at his body, which was still marked by the scars of his fall.

“I know,” she replied, “But I can't go yet and your wounds need to be treated. I can tell everyone that you got hurt while we were trying to figure out what happened and that I sent you away to get yourself looked at, but I don't know how soon I'll be able to leave here. Do you have anywhere you can go?”

He hesitated. “… Doctor Linda.”

“You… do realize she is not that kind of Doctor?”

“So she keeps telling me. But at the moment she is the most qualified for the job. Or, well, on par with you I suppose, but you're otherwise occupied. Or do you maybe have a better idea?”

“… no.”

He nodded. “I will see you there, then?”

She smiled at him. “Of course. I'll get there as soon as I can.” And with an afterthought, “Don't do anything else stupid.”

“Me? Never. Who do you think I am?”

She laughs at that. “The most impulsive person I know?”

“Touché,” he grinned. “Brother, could you please get me to the Doctor's office?”

Amenadiel turned towards her, and, unseen by his brother mouthed a _Thank you_. She simply smiled at them both.

And with that they were gone.

The sirens started up again.

Chloe sighed. This day was far from over.

**Author's Note:**

> Please forgive me for any continuity errors, since I didn't have the time to finish this fic I also did not have time to rewatch the series. Next time I rewatch it I'll fix any mistakes I might have made.
> 
> Now, I already have a rough first draft for the second chapter and some notes for a potential third chapter, but I really can't tell when I'll get to writing them.
> 
> The title is a reference to Adventure Time and there's a Hamilton reference in there. I just couldn't stop myself.


End file.
